N.C. Ranks 26th In High School Grad Rankings Nationally | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this political post Barry Smith, who is an associate editor to the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

In first meaningful comparison, 78 percent of students receive diplomas in four years

    RALEIGH     North Carolina's graduation rate ranks about in the middle of the pack in relation to other states around the country.

    North Carolina is tied for 26th in what is called the cohort graduation rate. Educators and education policy analysts say that figure means more today than it has before. That's because nearly all the states have adopted the cohort graduation rate as a means of measuring what percentage of their students graduate.

    The cohort graduation rate at a high school or in a state is the percentage of students who graduate within four years. The rate is adjusted to account for population shifts, as well as to account for students who transfer from school to school.

    "It's not a perfect way of calculating graduation rates, but it's much improved," said Terry Stoops, director of research and education studies at the John Locke Foundation.

    Stoops credits the national No Child Left Behind program, a George W. Bush-era education initiative, for sparking the change to a more uniform way of measuring graduation rates.

    "For all of its faults, the one positive requirement to come out of No Child Left Behind was the establishment of a common graduation rate calculation," Stoops said.

    North Carolina's graduation rate is 78 percent, which put the Tar Heel State in a tie for 26th with Arizona and Delaware.

    The rankings are for the 2010-11 academic year.

    Iowa is ranked first at 88 percent. The District of Columbia is last, or 48th, at 59 percent. Three states - Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma - were not ranked because they have not adopted the standardized cohort graduation rate.

    North Carolina also is in the middle compared with neighboring states. Tennessee (tied for fourth at 86 percent) and Virginia (tied for 19th at 82 percent) had higher graduation rates than North Carolina. South Carolina (tied for 37th at 74 percent) and Georgia (45th at 67 percent) had lower rates.

    Stoops said there are a number of things to be gleaned from the cohort graduation ranking.

    "Lesson No. 1 is that there is no relationship between per-pupil spending and graduation rates," Stoops said. North Carolina spent $8,572 per student.

    Top-ranked Iowa spent $9,484 per student, while a number of states ranking below Iowa spent more. Second-place Vermont spent $17,447 per student and third-place Wisconsin spent $11,787 per student.

    New York, which spent $17,750 per student, tied for 29th. New Jersey, which spent $17,717 per student, tied for 12th.

    The District of Columbia, which ranked last, spent $13,803 per student.

    Stoops said he is concerned about what graduating and obtaining a high school diploma actually represents, since a significant number of high school graduates entering the state's community college system need to take remedial courses.

    "Sixth-five percent of high school graduates that enroll in North Carolina community colleges immediately after graduation have to take one or more remedial courses," Stoops said. "These remedial courses are math, reading, and English, so the basics."

    Stoops added, "You would suspect that those who graduate from high school that don't go on to higher education also lack the basic skills of reading, writing, and math."

    "It shows just how meaningless a high school diploma is," Stoops said. "A high school diploma doesn't indicate mastery of the basics. It's clear from those remediation rates that a high school diploma doesn't indicate any mastery of skills or knowledge."

    "It's embarrassing to me," Rebecca Garland, associate state superintendent, said of graduates' need for remedial instruction. She said state educators are working to lower that rate, and to help high school students better prepare for entering community colleges.

    "We were not getting across to students that if they wanted to get high-end credentials or get an associate's degree, you need to prepare for going to college," Garland said.

    Consequently, some students took classes that allowed them to graduate, but didn't prepare them to meet the rigor of college courses.

    "Now we have to communicate to the students what [the needed coursework] is," Garland said.

    Garland said that most of the remediation required at community colleges was in mathematics. She said that a lot of students would take Algebra 1 and graduate, but not have the critical thinking skills developed through the Algebra 2 class.

    "Students need to know more math," Garland said. "It's the critical thinking problem solving level that goes along with Algebra 2."

    Stoops offers some suggestions for reforms.

    "We need to raise standards in North Carolina, and hold students to high standards throughout their academic career," Stoops said. "We need to identify struggling students early and ensure that they're getting the education they need."

    Stoops said if students aren't getting the needed instruction in their assigned public schools, the state needs to give families the option of seeking out a different institution for their children.